Laura was reading the paper. “Listen to this honey. ‘In earlier studies, like Dr. Auwerx’s of mice on treadmills, the animals were fed such large amounts of resveratrol that to gain equivalent dosages people would have to drink more than 100 bottles of red wine a day. The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a day.’”

“Whew,” Mat said, after a sip of his orange juice. “Lucky mice.”

The article gave Laura an idea. Mat’s birthday was coming up. She logged in to wine dot com and ordered a selection of six bottles. Laura would have ordered a bottle for each year of Mat’s life if only their bank account had been a few thousand dollars richer, but with their mortgage payments and the health insurance and Mat’s job being so shaky ... If only Mat were twenty years younger. Laura giggled: But then he’d be way too young to drink the wine. She tried to imagine him as a six-year-old. The best she could do was picture him at sixteen. He was awfully cute then. Still was. My darling boy, she thought as she typed in her credit card number.

As luck would have it, the UPS delivery was scheduled for Mat’s birthday. But UPS wouldn’t pin down the exact delivery time, and someone twenty-one or older had to be home to sign for the parcel. Mat’s company gave its employees their birthdays off, but Laura wanted to be there for the surprise. “I’m taking the day off, too,” Laura told him. “I don’t want you to be alone on your birthday. We can celebrate.”

“Hey,” Mat said brightly. “We can go downtown, visit the museum. There’s this photography exhibit I’ve been wanting to see.”

“Or we can hang out here,” Laura said.

“That doesn’t sound...” Mat’s eyes dimmed.

“We can do some stuff. We can fool around.”

“Fool around?”

“We could pretend we’re teenagers just falling in love.” She gave Mat a shy but flirty smile.

“Mm,” Mat said, “teenagers,” and he leaned over to kiss Laura.

But she pulled away. “Be good,” she said.

“But I love you.”

“You’re sweet. But I’m sweet sixteen and never been kissed.”

“Laura, you know how much I love you.”

“Okay, maybe just a little one.”

Mat touched his lips to Laura’s.

“That was nice,” Laura said. “You’re a nice boy.”

“Can I have another one?”

“Maybe one more.”

This time the kiss lasted longer. Mat’s tongue touched Laura’s. His hand moved to her breast.

“That’s enough,” Laura said, breaking away. “You’re getting me all hot and bothered.”

“I need you,” Mat said.

“I know, but you’ve got to be patient. We’ve got years ahead of us. We don’t want to rush. Now be good.”

“But I need you so bad,” Mat said. He took Laura’s hand and moved it to his groin.

“So big!” she said. “So big and naughty.” Abruptly she pulled away. “We can’t. My mom might be home any minute now.”

“Fuck your mom,” Mat said.

“Mat!”

“I was only kidding. But seriously, I think we need to go upstairs.”

“I like you and all,” Laura said, “but you’re acting really forward. Really rude. Maybe you should go home.”